Display device



Patented July 31, 1923.

UNITED STATES 1,463,740 PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES EDWIN GEE AND FREDERICK SAMUEL GEE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

DISPLAY DEVICE.

Application filed November 25, 1922. Serial 1T0. 603,329.

To all w/mmz't may concern Be it known that we, James EDWIN GEE and FREDERICK SAMUEL Gan, both subjects of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residin at 235 High llolborn, London, \V. C. 1, ,ngland, have invented new and useful Improvements in or Relating to Display Devices (on which application has been made for Letters Patent in Great Britain, No. 32,713, filed the 6th December, 1921, cognate with No. 26,726 filed 3rd October, 1922), of which the following is a specification.

This invention is for improvements in or relating to those display devices in which an advertisement or other notice is formed by tablets constituting characters (such as letters, numbers and the like) which are adapted to be positioned and held upon a support, the tablet, being formed with feet to abut a support, said feet being integral with the remainder of the tablet.

According to the present invention the tablet has feet formed integrally by portions bent over at its margins, the feet allowing the tablet to stand firmly on the supporting surface and form an angle with said supporting surface.

The invention is particularly applicable to a magnetic display device of the type in which small permanent magnets are incorporated in display tablets, the latter being thus adapted to be held by a magnetic attraction upon a support of para-magnetic material, such as an iron or steel plate.

The invention therefore includes a display tablet for use in a magnetic display device of the kind specified above, and characterized by the fact that the tablet is of paramagnetic material with the feet aforesaid constituting ma 'net poles.

It has been found that when only two magnet poles are incorporated in each tablet as heretofore and when the tablets are small (for example, half-an-inch in length and width) there may not be sufficient magnetic attraction exerted to ensure that the tablets will remain undisturbed in their position on the support when the latter is subjected to slight shocks or vibrations or when the whole device is moved by hand from place to place. In order to overcome this difficulty more than two magnet poles (preferably constituting two or more pairs of poles) are, accordin to a feature of this invention, provided in one and the same tablet. This con struction has the additional advantage of forming a more rigid base to abut the support, as will be more particularly described hereinafter.

The marginal portions of each tablet whether the latter is to be used in connectlon with a magnetic display device or otherwise, are so arranged and are of such length as to maintain the display surface of the character at any desired distance from the support and at any desired angle thereto.

One preferred form of the invention as applied to a magnetic display device will now be described in detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which- Flgure 1 is a perspective view, on an enlarged scale, of a portion of a support with twotablets in position thereon, and

Figure 2 is a plan of two tablets viewed in the direction 0f their reverse sides.

The tablets 5 are cut out from a sheet of para-magnetic material, conveniently b stamping and in the present example eac tablet represents in outline a letter of the alphabet-the letters D and N being illustrated. Each tablet is formed with a plurality of lugs 7 which extend outwards from the periphery of the tablet and at a proximately opposite margins thereof. ?n the two letters shown in the drawings there are four lugs on each letter. These lugs are bent over to lie substantially at right-an les to the display face of the character. onvenicntl the tablets are cut out from sheet materia and the lugs bent over in the reuired manner in a single stamping operatlon. Each tablet is magnetized and thereupon becomes virtually a small permanent magnet, the poles being constituted by the lugs aforesaid and the yoke by that part of the tablet which bridges between the poles. Thus, with the two letters illustrated there are two small permanent magnets incorporated in each tablet, the two poles at the top of the tablet being of opposite polarity to those at the bottom. In general with any tablet the latter is so magnetized that. the poles on opposite sides of a straight line crossing the tablvt are of opposite polarit A backing or support 6 in the form of a sheet of para-magnetic material is provided as a positionin member for the tablets. The display sur face of the support may be ornamented in any desired manner, and

Ill

similarly the display faces of the letters may also be ornamented.

It will be seen that the lugs 7 forming the magnet poles also constitute foot memhers to rest upon the surface of the support. It will also be seen that by the rovision of a plurality of such foot mem ers not onlv is a rigid base provided for each tablet but also the magnetic attraction between the tablets and the support is enhanced. The distance at which the display surface of the letters is spaced from the support is determined by the depth of the lugs 7. In the example illustrated these lugs are of equal length, and the display surface of the letters is therefore parallel with the surface of the support. If the letters are required to stand out at an angle to the support it is only necessary to make the lugs at one margin of shorter length than those at the opposite margin.

In the foregoing example the invention has been described in its application to magnetic display apparatus. As before stated the invention is applicable also to display devices in general. That is to sa magnetic attraction does not necessari form the holding means between the tab et and the support; and the tablets do not therefore, of necessity, re uire to be made in para-magnetic materia. Thus the tablets 5, representing the letters D and N 1n the drawing, mig t be secured in any desired manner, for example by solderin to a support such as 6. Whatever metho be adopted to secure the tablets to the support the former are in each case characterized by the provision of feetb means of which the characters represente by the tablets are spaced apart from the surface of the support to which they are applied.

What we claim 1s:

1. A display device comprising a plate of magnetic material, a detachable tablet of desired shape and character formed of paramagnetic material and a plurality of pairs of feet formed integrally with said tablet and constituted b portions bent over at the margins of said tablet, said feet being adapted to form airs of magnetic poles for the attachment of the said tablet to the surface of the said plate.

2. A display device comprisin a plate of magnetic material, a detacha 1e tablet of desired shape and character formed of para-magnetic material and a plurality of pairs of feet, the feet of each pair being of the same length, formed integrally with said tablet and constituted by ortions bent over at the margins of said tab et, said feet being adapted to form pairs of magnetic poles for the attachment of the said tablet to the surface of the said plate.

3 A display device comprising a plate,

of ma netic material, a detachable tablet of desire shape and character formed of paraa magnetic material and a plurality of feet formed integrally with said tablet, constituted by portions bent over at the mar 'ns of said tablet, said feet being adapte to form magnetic poles for the attachment of said feet to the surface of said late, said feet upon opposite ends of the ta let being of different lengths whereby said tablet may form an angle with said surface of said plate.

4. A display device comprisin a plate of magnetic material, a detacha 1e tablet of deslred shape and character formed of- JAMES EDWIN GEE. FREDERICK SAMUEL GEE. 

